john dew

Hi Robin I like the look of those water cranes......I ,too, have a bunch of aged and, in my case, wounded Mikes Models Cranes....they are runners up to signals and lamp posts for collateral damage on Granby. What are the principal differences between the two makes? Hope you had a good Easter despite all the disruption. Best wishes John

Hi Tony Its good to hear from you and very nice of you to think of us. We are both well .....the lockdown doesnt affect us too much although we missed the usual big family dinner we normally have at Easter....we have had had a series of sunny days here so its all systems go in the garden. I guess you have been busy at work...I get more updates from linkdin about you than I do of your layout! I do hope you are both well and coping as best you can with all this disruption to everyday life. Best wishes John

Thanks for the comment Neal.....I hope all is well with you in Spain. We are very fortunate here .......all the key graphs are lower and flatter than the other provinces . Our Chief Medical Officer was previously in charge in Toronto during the SARS epidemic.....the experience seems to have been invaluable. For us the lockdown continues and the bottle of rose on saturday with our gloved and socially distant daughter has now become a ritual. One of the many attractions of this hobby is the fact it is so varied.......if one gets fed up with one particular job (ballasting springs to mind) one can swiftly change gears and focus on something entirely different. Having spent most of the last few weeks running trains I decided to take a short break and do some people painting: On the left are some 3D printed figures from Modelu , on the right a set of white metal cast figures from Langley Quite a contrast: Neither are perfect for Granby. The Modelu figures were scanned from real live models circa 2018. In many ways they are more natural, particularly the drape and look of clothing.......albeit they can be difficult to paint accurately. However a glance at any photograph of the late forties shows that workmen of that era were generally shorter and considerably slimmer than these rather well fed gentlemen! The Langley figures are almost the direct opposite. These guys look more suited for a Victorian or Edwardian time period. Beautifully engraved .....they are generally a delight to paint...the exception being the faces which can be less than convincing. Overall they are a little small.....almost as though they were designed at the mid point between 00 and H0....the overall impression can be a bit Hobbit like Despite all this they can be quite effective in situ.......here are two on the Canal Warehouse The trick is to avoid placing such different styles side by side Fortunately the intended location for these guys couldnt be further apart The Langley figures will go on the Metcalfe Warehouse which is part of the Engine Shed Back Scene Their smaller height and exaggerated poses should work well when viewed from a distance....sort of forced perspective. Some of the Modelu figures will go on another Metcalfe Warehouse 1n the opposite corner of the room This warehouse is part of the storage yard screen immediately above the computor screen. Right in my face so to speak.......I will have to exercise extra care with the painting.....I dont want to be constantly reminded of that wayward drop of smudged paint. There is a third warehouse, also in a very prominent position, that needs attention. The flat roof of the Soap Factory right by the doorway I have a cunning plan for this........something a bit different : I hope you are all well and enjoying life as best you can during the lockdown Best Wishes

We are now entering day 28 of self isolation.......I cant really call it a lock down .....Canada seems to have a slightly more relaxed approach than the UK.....certainly the Mounties are not rushing about fining people. The emphasis is on self distancing and using common sense when shopping for essentials......fortunately the liquor store is deemed to be essential. To be honest, with us both retired (from work and sailing) daily life is pretty much unchanged. Admittedly, its a little surreal, during the daily dog walk chatting to people from a carefully calculated 2M distance or, even more bizarre, drinking rose on the deck with Daughter#2......seated 2m away.....clad in rubber gloves daintily holding the glass she has specially brought with her! So I continue to spend 2 or 3 hours most days in the train room. Not much modelling, the majority of the time has been spent fine tuning the automated commutor runs to and from the bays at north end of Granby. All the eight locos involved have now been converted to Zimo chips plus some form of stay alive which has resulted in a significant improvement in consistent accurate stopping. Not to the extent that I no longer check that the loco has uncoupled/ coupled........but now I do so in the expectation that it has been successful. The downside of all this operation and consequent leaning over the layout has resulted in an increase in "collateral damage" to the usual targets......signal poles and lamposts. Daily maintenance recently! Lost count of the number of times the yard lamp has been fixed........dont even ask about the branch signals.......out of shot for obvious reasons. Change of pace........ the shot above reminded me of some earlier photos that I took after adding some children playing in the terraced street which hides the storage yards...................the first is a close up, cropped from the shot : Another figure from the Langley school girls kit and finally.......Jones the milk: Keep well......stay safe Best wishes John

Hi Neal What a splendid photograph. I dont believe I have ever seen that version before.......was it unique to Henley? Its interesting to compare it with the eponymous Ratio Kit. The tank and associated hardware look identical whereas the brick base, although clearly from the same stable, has been significantly elongated. I wonder why that was required. Are you going to scratch build the the tank and piping or use the components from Ratio? Keep well John

Yes that would be the one.....another "may come in useful" I stored away. As an aside most of the DJM locos have coreless motors including Hattons 14xx (ok to mention GWR here I hope)....... a very disappointing runner....I fitted a Zimo and some stay alive tantalums and the loco's performance was transformed. Its now totally reliable operating automatically with RR&Co. I bought the Zimo from Youchoos and John Gymer advised me to set CV 56 to 22 (I normally accept the default : 55) .....Page 19 in the Zimo Manual may be of use Cheers John

Hi Gordon You may already know this but I seem to remember that you need to be careful with some Cv settings (BEMF?) when chipping portescaps......sorry that is so vague but a bit of research may be worthwhile. Like you I am a big fan of Zimo.......the budget versions at 20 quid are amazing value Keep well John

What a difference a week makes! A fortnight ago we flew from Vancouver to spend a week with friends in Puerto Vallarta Mexico. Obviously we were aware of the impending pandemic and, although there was no travel advisory in place, did consider cancelling. In truth, other than the outgoing flight being half empty there was virtually no evidence of an emergency either at Vancouver Airport or during our very relaxing stay in our friends beach side apartment......it was, in fact, quite idyllic....... The week was over far too soon and we returned home to find the world turned upside down. We are now in self isolation not only because of the return flight but also because many of the 270 confirmed cases and deaths (6) in BC have taken place in a Care Home about 2 miles away from our house. Fortunately we are well stocked up......although the wine is somewhat depleted......and both daughters live near us and can do top up shopping for us. We can still walk the dog in a nearby park......keeping 6' away from fellow walkers..........the weather is springlike (albeit cooler than Mexico), there is lots to do in the garden and I am permitted from time to time to venture into the railway room. All things considered we are very fortunate.....and continue to count our blessings. Best wishes John

Hi Peter Thank you for the nice comments! They are all kits I bought on ebay about 15 years ago. They were made by a company called Gem I think. The figures, hydrants and standing boiler came from the same source. I dont think the company is still manufacturing but you may be lucky with ebay or googling Kind regards John

Hi Neal Its beginning to look as though Hattons jumped the gun......I couldnt find any mention of an announcement on the Dapol site and nothingfrom any other retailer...including Rails who are normally very quick off the mark. Best wishes John

Hattons have now changed the name to Compton on their order page After that flurry of activity ...alls well that hopefully ends well

You may well be correct Mike.......I couldnt see anything at all on the Dapol Site Kind regards John

Sent an email

Excellent news. But is Crompton Manor correct or a typo? Wikipedia and GWR.org show Compton Manor.

Excellent news......However is it Crompton Manor or Compton? Wikipedia and GWR.org think it is Compton! Slightly worried in Vancouver John

To old know much about diesels.....but steam: 7. Manors 78xx. Some Castles and some 57xx Panniers 8. to be honest I was thinking of the 8750 sub class of pannier but when I checked no 8s however I was saved..... some 94xx were numbered 8xxx The GWR applied their own unique logic to numbering! Regards from a sunny Vancouver John

Hi Gordon Once again congratulations....that was very impressive. I particularly admired the freight train. Out of interest how are you controlling the four trains....I assume they were running on the four separate running lines but are they all on the one throttle? I got a bit confused about locos beginning with 4, 5 or 6. The premier line had them all ........1 through 9 I believe the phrase is...”gets coat” Cheers John

Hi Jamie Thanks for the compliments! My roof is 49" long,18" wide and 9" high (from track bed). It covers 5 tracks and three platforms. There are 16 supporting arches at 3 1/2" centres. I modified the kit by leaving parts of the roof unglazed (for ease of access), strengthened the central beam, and made it in two sections for ease of removal. You can build the kit as long as you like. It might be possible to vary the width but I think it would be quite challenging. There is also a smaller roof available.....I think it is part of the medium station kit. Hope this helps Regards John

Delighted you found it interesting......I wouldnt dream of attempting to convert you. Its not for everybody and certainly not for someone like you with a well established group of operators. It undoubtedly keeps my ancient grey cells ticking over! Cheers John

I spent most of my time last week wrestling with RR&Co. I suspect few of the followers of this thread share my fascination with computor control but an account of day to day life on Granby would be incomplete without the occasional passing reference. One of the essential elements of computor control is that every train on the layout is shown in the same block ( and facing the same way !) on the computor screen. In an ideal world the shortest block will accommodate the longest train but in practice this is not always the case. There are protocols for dealing with a train that overhangs into the previous block but I managed to confuse RR&Co with this scenario: Dean Goods backs branch goods into short siding, uncouples brake van and leaves in the opposite direction to shunt the yard. This is normally a straightforward procedure . The fact that the train occupied two blocks and was then separated into two separate units one of which reversed direction produced some very "unexpected results". Typically the train was located in the short block and the brake van in front of it in the previous block ! This was not helpful. I lost count of the number of times I ran that schedule back and forth. If nothing else I proved that not only is patience a virtue but adding a Zimo decoder +stay alive to an Oxford Dean Goods transforms its performance. It literally didnt miss a beat.......not a moments hesitation as it pushed a 7 car train over dodgy track at scale 10 mph After much trial and tribulation I finally devised a means of convincing the computor to believe me. It could not be described as an elegant solution.....in fact Heath Robinson verges on flattery.......but it works: Computor screen and reality are as one again The brake van is uncoupled The rest of the train heads back to start shunting For those few of you who found the RR&Co stuff interesting you can find a more detailed explanation of the problem and solution here https://www.freiwald.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=34766 I hope that everyone else did not find it too boring. If nothing else it gave me the opportunity to post more photos of what is rapidly becoming one of my favourite locos Regards from Vancouver where we are in holiday mode....next week we will be flying to Mexico for a short break John

The dust kind of accumulates and adds to the general grime........it certainly adds to the weathering patina on the locos! The canal is an issue and I dust that fairly regularly. I am not in the railway every day but holidays apart it is very rare for a week to go by without some trains running which keeps the tracks clean With your travel itinerary and other interests I think easily removeable dust covers would be a good idea for North Cranford Cheers John

They are from a Bachmann set of 40’s/50’s loco crew.They came ready painted and I touched them up a bit. Best wishes

Thanks Tinker The roof was a bit of a nightmare.....the dog doesnt venture into the train room but his hair sure does....it gets everywhere and is particularly attracted to drying paint. Best wishes John

Thanks Neal........I can control the interior lights from both the DCC throttles and RR&Co although I am still working on the automated side. I am a bit of a novice with functions but I think the Zimo chip controls the interior light with F1......I have been leaving them on for now! Best wishes John

Thanks Edward.....that is very kind of you. I am glad you liked the engine shed video......virtually all my videos are operated automatically by RR&Co but I have got in the habit of keeping it in the background......I keep meaning to make another one that features it a bit more. Best wishes John